As noted by Rav Eliezer HaKalir in his hauntingly beautiful Kinah - Eish Tukad B’Kirbi, the Jewish people historically have our ups and downs. We have had our periods of exile and our periods of redemption. In between these periods, there have been times which have been outright horrific as well as times which have been graceful and prosperous. There have also been times which were perhaps a mixture of both, leading to confusion and fragile hope for a better time.
I feel like we can relate to such a time, as today we are living in such a state of simultaneous beauty and horror. This was also the state of affairs for the Jewish people in the desert.
To recap, we left Mitzrayim on a high, as we went from rags to riches literally overnight. It was clear that Hashem loved us, with outright miracles every day and every moment. We stood at Har Sinai, we were eating the manna and things were going pretty good. That is, until we made the decision to build the Egel, the Golden Calf, from there…
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